


The Princess and the Cookies

by KiraHeartilly



Series: The Many Days of Christmas 2020 [3]
Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: CW: Mild Transphobia with a Happy Resolution, M/M, Santa Claus says Trans Rights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27881302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiraHeartilly/pseuds/KiraHeartilly
Summary: Princess K helps HT Masuoka bake some cookies for Neku while opening up about her childhood and her love for Christmas.
Relationships: One Sided Masuoka HT/Sakuraba Neku
Series: The Many Days of Christmas 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2040853
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	The Princess and the Cookies

A little café sat on the corner of Cat Street, and though the owner was far too busy to keep it open on anything resembling a normal schedule, everyone agreed that it was a fantastic place to dine if the stars aligned. The fresh aroma of coffee gave the atmosphere a pleasant relaxed feeling, and the delicious soup filled you with a strong warmth that reinvigorated the soul, especially in the cold Shibuya winter. The oak interior gave the place a refined quality that almost clashed with the proprietor’s laid back attitude, but his friendly nature was too welcoming to complain.

Princess K sipped her coffee as her friend HT Masuoka walked through the door, whistling a fun tune from the hit _Verum Rex_ game. He grinned at her unable to contain his astonishment. “You have to tell me your secret. Are you secretly friends with the owner?” He pulled out a chair and sat across from her, fingers dancing across the table.

“No more so than you are,” she told him.

“No, c’mon, really. Every time I try to come here on my own it’s closed. All my other friends say they’ve made it in once or twice, but it’s after _months_ of trying. You on the other hand, keep saying ‘Princess K wants to eat at WildKat,’ and every time we come, the café is open. Every single time.” They say once is an incident and twice is a coincidence, but they’d been meeting up for months without a single miss.

“Princess K has her secrets,” she said with a wink.

HT stood up, and hands in his pockets, strode over to the counter.

“Hey, HT, what can I getcha?” Hanekoma sipped a cup of his own coffee and let out a satisfied “ahhh.”

“I’ll take a bouillabaisse and an order of the house blend please. Oh and some muffins too, I’ve got a killer sweet tooth and your muffins are such a delight.” He watched Hanekoma get to work, quickly serving up the soup and coffee, and handed over his money in exchange for the order.

“Here you go. Enjoy.” Hanekoma smirked, but his sunglasses made it hard to judge his true expression. HT returned to his seat, letting out an almost defeated sigh.

Princess K giggled. “Is something the matter? Has HT fallen for the barista? Princess K loves a good coffee shop AU.”

“Oh please,” HT rolled his eyes. “Mr. Hanekoma’s cute, but he’s too old for me. I was just watching him prepare the food. I’m uhh not very good with food. I tried baking the cookies from your vlog, but I ended up burning them somehow.” He blushed. “I was planning to give them to Neku, but in the end I just decided to buy them from the store. Now all I need to do is give them to him.”

“Nonsense, homemade cookies come from the heart. You cannot give up just because of one failure. Any skill worth mastering will take lots of practice. And if in the end, you still have trouble, Princess K will help you bake them herself!”

“Woah, really? You’d do that?”

**~xXx~**

HT gasped in awe as he stepped into Princess K’s house. “Wow, you really went all out this Christmas!” Nearly any Shibuya resident with any taste in fashion knew Princess K. They all knew of her adoration for the color black. But that didn’t mean she had no love for things bright and festive. After all, her favorite hat did come with a pink ribbon.

An entire forest of artificial trees decorated her living room. They were white and green, imitating snow. Festive ribbons in pink, white, and blue wrapped themselves around the Christmas tree, intertwined with lights in a perfect balance. Few people could add this many decorations to a tree without overdoing it.

Homemade silver snowflakes hung from the ceiling, each one with its own unique pattern.

“Christmas will always be a special Holiday to me. My parents and I go all out every year.”

HT tilted his head to the side. Princess K only ever broke character when she was feeling serious. “You never told me that. We’ve been friends for years and you’ve never really mentioned it as special.”

“It’s personal. Even a princess has her secrets.” She gave a smirk, but HT could sense a hint of sorrow in her voice, and the way she held her arms just a little closer to her body, as if closing herself off to the world. “I’ll tell you later. Did you bring the ingredients?”

“Yep,” he held up his shopping bag. “Everything we need to make the ultimate cookies.”

They set to work immediately. “Baking is an art, but also a science. On my blog I play up the fun and joy of it all to fit into my princess theme, but you have to be careful. Too much or too little of any ingredient can have serious consequences.” They measured out the flour careful, HT stared at the lines on the measuring cup as if he were trying to read the very secrets of life itself.

The recipe was very complex and a bit unusual, but Princess K’s followers all said they loved it. Well, the ones who didn’t burn their batches at least. It called for oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chip, a fusion of three separate cookie flavors fused together. HT had sampled his batch, and they did taste okay for burnt cookies, but they weren’t good enough to be the gift he wanted.

They mixed the ingredients together, adding just enough chocolate chips to satisfy the mightiest sweet tooth without overpowering the other tastes. “Now we let the dough chill in the refrigerator,” Princess K instructed.

“Got it,” HT took the bowl to the fridge, searching for room to fit the bowl. It was full with lots of sweets, cakes, muffins, and pastries, but also regular foods like fruits and vegetables. Though not a strict vegetarian, Princess K wasn’t very fond of meat. “I thought you hated lettuce,” said HT, staring at a head of lettuce on the bottom shelf. “I could have sworn you told me your entire family hated it.”

“It’s not for us, it’s for the reindeer,” she said plainly.

“The what now?” HT asked. “What reindeer?”

“Santa’s reindeer. Everybody leaves cookies for Santa Claus, but only a few people ever think to leave out any snacks for the reindeer. I like to make them a quick salad. Nothing too big since they’re probably on a tight schedule. I’ve never quite understood how that works.”

“I- you’re joking right?” asked HT. “You do know Santa isn’t real right?”

“Of course he’s real, silly. He brings lots of presents to people all over the world. How could he do that if he wasn’t real?” She smiled brightly again, but HT could tell there was more to this story. She wasn’t joking, but she wasn’t being entirely truthful either. She was hiding something.

“Those are just gifts from people’s parents. They say they come from Santa because they want to trick children into being good for the entire year. You know, nice kids get gifts, bad kids get coal? Besides, Santa wouldn’t even come here if he was real. He only delivers to children and you’re a teenager.”

“That’s all a bit of an over simplification. Sometimes he’ll give gifts to older people if they really deserve or need it. And he doesn’t only give gifts to good children. That’s just a superstition parents created to control their children. He believes in self-improvement, and would rather use kindness to encourage good behavior than punishment.

“Have I ever told you how I got this hat?”

HT shook his head.

“It was a few months after I came out to my parents. They didn’t really understand it. They kept telling their friends about how their ‘son _‘wanted’_ to be a girl.’ They kept treating it like it was all pretend. They were never outright rude or nasty but not quite supportive either.

“I was already old enough that I didn’t believe in Santa Claus, as my parents had never really bothered with Christmas gifts anyway. But that year I woke up on Christmas Day and found a present under the tree. And it had my _real_ name on it, not my dead name. So I knew it wasn’t from my parents. When I opened it up it was an absolutely adorable Gothic Lolita outfit. It came with a frilly dress, thigh high stockings, fabulous boots, all made complete with this adorable hat. I outgrew most of it and donated it to charity, but obviously I kept this.” Princess K pointed to her hat.

“They had a gift under the tree too. It was a book about raising transgender children. They took it as a sign and both read it together. They didn’t make any miraculous overnight improvements, but they did get better. They stopped deadnaming me, started calling me their daughter, and helped talk to my teachers at school. Now they’re nothing but supportive.”

HT simply nodded, unsure of what to say. “Well, whatever happened, I’m glad it worked out for the best.”

“Princess K is glad too,” she said, slipping back into character. “Princess K thinks some anime would be a great way to pass the time while waiting for the dough to chill.” She grabbed her TV and DVD remotes, pressing play. An episode of _Jeweler Richard_ showed up on TV.

“Oh, I love this show,” said HT. The two friends hopped onto the couch, eager for a chance to relax after that heavy story.

He glanced at Princess K’s signature hat. “You know, since I’m baking cookies for Neku after all, that means I don’t need the store bought cookies. Maybe I’ll leave them out for Santa Claus. Though I’ll need to stop by the store again if I want something for the reindeer.”

“I’m sure they’d enjoy that.”


End file.
